September 29, 2007

A few items that caught my eye over the last few days. First, this Spanish report that suggests that Bush was determined to attack regardless of telling the American people that war was not inevitable:

"Bush purportedly said he planned to invade Iraq inf March 'if there was a United Nations Security Council resolution or not....We have to get rid of Saddam. We will be in Baghdad at the end of March.'"

Just confirmation of what we already knew--at least in my mind--that Bush was determined to attack Iraq no matter what. And he had/has no ability (or seems not to) to question himself:

Agence France Presse translates part of the chat with Bush stating: "I am optimistic because I believe I am right. I am at peace with myself."

Some accuse me of brooding over things, but I prefer that to someone who seems incapable of introspection.

The Spanish report also suggests that Bush believed that Saddam was willing to leave Iraq. Evidently, the former dictator was willing to take a billion dollars and leave the country. I think this is an interesting scenario and one that causes us all a lot of problems. On one hand, Bush has made us spend far more in both money and certainly American and Iraqi lives to reduce this country to rubble. Would that Billion dollar buy-out have stopped that? I don't know. Nor am I sure that would have been a good precedent either. But it is also clear--if this is true--that Bush and Cheney never allowed the American people to make the decision. They, instead, forced us to choose between a mushroom cloud and this war.

I think history will cement this as Bush's war, whether he likes it or not.

*****

This Tuesday, we will finally hear the entire new Bruce Springsteen album. Since the Boss campaigned for John Kerry, it is no surprise that he is not a fan of this administration, but he made that clear on the Today show the other day. And this, I am afraid to say, is exactly what we have to talk about.

The Boss speaks out: "“This is a song called Livin’ In the Future. But it’s really about what’s happening now. Right now. It’s kind of about how the things we love about America, cheeseburgers, French fries, the Yankees battlin’ Boston… the Bill of Rights [holds up microphone, urging crowd to cheer] … v-twin motorcycles… Tim Russert’s haircut, trans-fats and the Jersey Shore… we love those things the way womenfolk love Matt Lauer.

But over the past six years we’ve had to add to the American picture: rendition, illegal wiretapping, voter suppression, no habeus corpus, the neglect of our great city New Orleans and its people, an attack on the Constitution. And the loss of our young best men and women in a tragic war.

This is a song about things that shouldn’t happen here—happening here.”

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